``There was the usual shelling Saturday, and skirmishing along the Tsorona sector Sunday -- but no large-scale fighting,'' an Ethiopian spokesperson told Reuters in Addis Ababa.

The Eritrean Foreign Ministry said the attack began at 8 am local time (0500 GMT). There was no immediate confirmation from Ethiopia.

``We are holding our positions,'' a senior Foreign Ministry official told Reuters. He said the other fronts on the 1,000-km (600 mile) border were quiet overnight.

President Isayas Afewerki called on every Eritrean to be ready to defend the country.

``Every Eritrean has to be on alert, everyone must carry at least a stick to foil the aggressor's ambitions,'' he said in a televised interview broadcast Sunday.

Afewerki said Eritrea was still committed to a peaceful solution of the border dispute which first erupted in fighting last May.

``We will work up to the last minute to find a peaceful solution, but we have the power, the weapons and the right to defend ourselves against (Ethiopian) aggression,'' he said in his first public appearance in weeks.

The conflict between Eritrea and Ethiopia, which broke out again on February 6 after an uneasy lull, has continued despite Eritrea's acceptance late in February of an Organization of African Unity (OAU) peace plan.

Ethiopia had announced its acceptance of the OAU plan last year.

Eritrea now claim that Ethiopia never fully accepted the OAU plan. ``The Ethiopians were just pretending, because they believed Eritrea was not in a position to accept the OAU plan,'' an Eritrean spokesman said.

The Eritrean government has called for an immediate cease-fire, but the Ethiopian government says Eritrea must first withdraw from Ethiopian territory it occupies along the border.

The Ethiopian government, in a statement from Addis Ababa Saturday, said Eritrea must also accept the reinstatement of Ethiopian civilian administration in areas claimed by Ethiopia.

In addition, Ethiopia says, Eritrea must ``bear full responsibility for the loss of lives, the humanitarian crisis and the destruction of property that has resulted from its unbridled aggression.''

Eritrean forces pulled out of Badme, the border region at the heart of the dispute, on February 27 after four days of fierce fighting.

``There was a mistake in our military position. We have to accept that, but we have learned from our mistake,'' Isayas said when questioned about the withdrawal.

Ethiopians claimed ``total victory'' after Eritrea's withdrawal from the area which first triggered the conflict.

Date=3/14/99
Type=Correspondent Report
Number=2-246597
Title=Ethiopia / Eritrea Fighting (L)
Byline=Scott Stearns
Dateline=Nairobi

Text: Eritrea says Ethiopian troops launched a large-scale offensive about 8 am, local time, on the western Tsorona front. A foreign ministry statement says there is fighting from the town, Alitena, north to the border.

It says Ethiopia's army and air force spent two hours Saturday afternoon preparing for the attack by shelling and bombing Eritrean positions.

Ethiopia says there has been what it calls "usual cross-border shelling" Saturday and Sunday, but it says there is no new offensive by Ethiopian ground troops.

The border has been relatively calm since Ethiopia retook ground around Badame, two weeks ago. That forced Eritrea into accepting an organization of african unity plan to arbitrate the border dispute.

But Ethiopia says Eritrea is not serious about that plan because it continues to occupy territory that was administered by Ethiopia before fighting began last May.

That includes ground on the Tsorona front, which Ethiopia has threatened to retake by force if Eritrea does not withdraw.

Eritrea says the o-a-u plan calls for both sides to pull back their troops and demilitarize the border ahead of an international monitoring force for disputed areas. A panel would decide the exact location of the frontier within six months.

By demanding the withdrawal of Eritrea's troops first, Eritrea says Ethiopia has effectively torpedoed the O-A-U plan by adding new preconditions. Eritrea says Sunday's attack shows Ethiopia's defiance of United Nations call for a ceasefire.

Ethiopia says it has the right to defend its territorial integrity, after ten months of what it calls Eritrean occupation. Ethiopia says it is still committed to the O-A-U plan but must see concrete evidence of Eritrea's seriousness before agreeing to talks. (signed) NEB / SS / DW / WD
14-Mar-99 6:29 AM EST (1129 UTC)
NNNN

As a prelude, the Ethiopian forces "carried out aerial bombing and heavy artillery shelling" of the Ilazamo plains in the Alitena-Mereb region for two hours on Saturday afternoon, the communique, sent to AFP's Nairobi bureau, said.

The border between the two Horn of Africa neighbours had been calm for the past week, but Asmara warned throughout the week that Addis Ababa was preparing such an offensive after pushing Eritrean troops out of the western front Badme region at the end of February -- fighting that resulted in the loss of thousands of lives, according to both sides.

An official in the office of the government spokesperson, Haile Kiros, said except for the cross-border artillery shelling, there was no fighting on Tsorona and other fronts either Sunday or Saturday.

But reports from Asmara, the Eritrean capital, earlier Sunday said there was heavy fighting on the Tsorona front, in the central area of the common border, involving ground forces and jet fighters, on Saturday and Sunday.

''No such fighting took place, except for intermittent artillery shelling this morning and on Saturday,'' Haile told reporters.

No serious engagements have been reported on the Ethiopian side since the last round of fierce fighting, from 23 to 26 February, on the Badme front in north-western Ethiopia, which culminated in the eviction of Eritrean forces from Badme after 9 months of occupation.

Eritrea had admitted setbacks on the Badme front and also announced on 27 February its acceptance of the OAU peace proposal for resolving the border dispute.

Fighting had died down since then, except for occasional border skirmishes and cross-border shelling on the Badme and Zalambessa front, some 30 kms to the east of Tsorona.

Although both sides have accepted the OAU peace plan, a ceasefire has yet to be announced.

Eritrea said lately it was ready for ''mutual re-deployment'' of troops in the disputed areas.

Ethiopia, on the other hand, still insists Eritrea must first withdraw unconditionally from all remaining territories its forces occupy, and also accept the restoration of the status quo ante, as stipulated in the OAU peace plan, before negotiations on implementing the plan.

Ethiopia confirmed that there was some cross-border shelling Saturday and Sunday, but denied Eritrea's claim of a "large-scale offensive" at the Tsorona front, 100 kilometres south of the capital, Asmara.

An Eritrean government statement said Ethiopian forces had launched an offensive Sunday after aerial bombardments and heavy shelling Saturday.

Ethiopian officials denied that there had been any large-scale fighting or aerial bombardments.

Eritrea and Ethiopia are fighting over parts of their barren 1000-kilometre border, which was never clearly demarcated after Eritrea became independent from Ethiopia in 1993. The latest round of fighting broke out Feb. 6, ending an eight-month stalemate after full-scale war killed 1,000 people in May and June.

On Feb. 27, Ethiopian troops broke through front lines at the western Badme-Shiraro front, forcing an Eritrean retreat.